only harrass'd and tormented by this Villanous and Jesuitical League not only driven out of his chief City but at length at the Instigation of the Jesuits stabb'd and murder'd by a Dominican Monk by them procur'd The Murder was also applauded by Pope Sixtus the Fifth in a long Oration spoke in a full Consistory of Cardinals in these words That a Monk saith he should kill the unfortunate King of France in the midst of his Army was a rare noble and memorable Act. And a little further This Act saith he was done by the Providence of God design'd by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost a far greater Act than that of Judith who slew Holofernes Expressions rather becoming the Mouth of a Devil than of a Vicar of Christ After him Henry the Fourth was first attempted by Barrier exhorted and confirm'd in the lawfulness of the Fact by Varada the Jesuit and others of the same Gang. Secondly by John Castell at the Instigation of Gueret and Guignard both Jesuits And Francis Verona the Jesuit publisht an Apology in vindication and justification of the Fact And lastly murder'd out-right by Francis Ravaillac a great Disciple of the Jesuits And for no worse Pranks than these they were banished out of France by Decree of Parliament As Corrupters of Youth Disturbers of the public Peace and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Truly very honourable Characters for those that pretend to be of the Society of Jesus The Venetians expell'd them upon this occasion The Senate observing that the Ecclesiastics especially the Jesuits began to engross Lands and Houses of their Territories under the pretence of Legacies to the great damage of the Public Income thought it convenient to put a stop to this Jesuitical Engrossment and provide by Law that Ecclesiastical Persons should not possess all the Temporal Estates in their Territories to themselves but give leave for others to share with them it being positively against the Constitution of their Order and the Institution of Christ their Founder The Jesuits took this in great dudgeon and wrote to Pope Paul the Fifth about it The Venetians being summon'd to answer would not relinquish their Right Protesting withal that they had the Supreme Jurisdiction in their own Territories and consequently to make Laws and that the Pope had nothing to do with them in those Matters Upon which Answer the Pope thunders out his Excommunication The Duke and Senate by public Decree condemn the Excommunication as unjust and invalid which done they call the whole Body of their Clergy and to them declare how Affairs stood The elder sort take part with the Commonwealth and maintain the Argument against the Pope in writing among whom Paulus Venetus was most eminently Signal The Jesuits not enduring the kneeness of his Reasons hire two Ruffians and upon the fifth of October 1607. set them to assassinate Paulus Venetus who thinking they had done his work left him for dead and fled away This was something near Sir Edmundbury Godfreys Case The Senate hearing this by a new Law banish the Jesuits for ever out of their Territories and cut them off from all hope of ever returning And this was their Fortune in Venice In the year 1609. the Bohemians made a Complaint to the Emperour against the Jesuits for the same Encroachments of which the Venetians had accused them before desiring of Casar that they might no longer be permitted to transfer and translate into their own possession such ample Patrimonies under pretence of Donations and Legacies as they did continually Of which when the Emperour took little notice they were by the Bohemian States themselves in the year 1618. utterly expelled out of that Nation for ever with these Characters 1. That they were lavish Wasters of the Public Peace and Tranquility of the Nation 2. That they endeavour'd to subject all Kingdoms and Nations to the Power of the Pope 3. That they did nothing but set the Magistrates together by the Ears 4. That they made particular Advantage of Confessions to the destruction of the people with many other Crimes of the same nature The same year they were expell'd out of Moravia for the same Reasons and the next year out of Hungaria for the same Causes In Silesia also a Decree was made That the Jesuits should not enter that Province upon pain of Death as being the onely means to preserve peace in the Nation As to other Villanies in Poland a Polonian Knight himself a Papist in an Oration by him made in a full Assembly of the Polonian Nobility declares That Cracow the most Famous City of Poland and Ornament of the Kingdom was so plagu'd by the Jesuits that several good men though Catholicks affirmed That they would rather live in the Woods among wild Beasts than abide in the City One time among the rest these Jesuits having brought their Conspiracy to perfection brake into the most ancient Monument of Antiquity in the City and to the great danger of the whole City set it on Fire as being granted to the Evangelics by Consent of the King and States of the Kingdom In Posnania another great City of the same Kingdom they set Fire on the Church belonging to those of the Augustan Confession and committed so many Insolencies without Controul that the Nobility refus'd to meet at the Dyet shortly after to be held at Warsaw resolving to repair further off to Lublin for the redress of these Misdemeanours Neither indeed was there any thing more grievously burdensom to that Kingdom than the Pride and Avarice of those Miscreants In Muscovy upon the Death of the Great Duke Basilowich the Jesuits set up one Demetrius against the lawful Heir who had made them large Promises if he obtain'd the Dukedom Thereupon by the help of these Jesuits the said Demetrius gets Aid from the King of Poland which was not onely the Occasion of a great War in Muscovy but had like to have cost them the Alteration of their Laws and loss of their ancient Customs and Priviledges had they not prevented it by a desperate Attempt upon the Impostor and put him to Death surrounded with Impostors and Jesuits The Transilvanians publicly and with one Consent laid all the Cause of their Miseries and Calamities upon the Subtilties and Contrivances of the Jesuits for which reason by a Public Decree of the States of that Province they were Ejected out of the limits of their Territories Nevertheless they secretly fomented the Ruin of that Country and were the reason that Sigismund Bathor involv'd himself in War and Trouble and at length died an inglorious and miserable Death By their Contrivance also Stephen Potski Prince of Transilvania opposing their Bloody Sect was put out of the way as they call it by Poyson in the year 1607. In Styria and Carinthia Provinces of Germany they never left till they had voided those Provinees of all the Inhabitants of the Reformed Religion In Holland they never left till they saw the Blood of William
Prince of Orange spilt by the trayterous Hand of Balthasar Gerard a Burgundian and Disciple of their own The same Attempts did Peter de Tour and other Ruffians make upon the person of Maurice his Son a brave and Martial Prince and all at the Instigation of the Jesuits those Insatiable Sons of BLOOD and PERDITION A VINDICATION OF THE Dissenting Protestants From being Authors of the REBELLION against the late KING and Plotters of Treason against His MAJESTY now Reigning SEeing then no Corner of Europe has been free from the Plots and Conspiracies of these Jesuitical Fiends it would be a kind of Crime and sleepy Desertion of our own Safety to suffer our selves to be charm'd by the Delusions of insinuating Libels and Rumors of Presbyterian Plots to mistrust the Truth of the continu'd Jesuitical Contrivances against the Kingdom Neither can they be thought the best Subjects of England who are so willing to Gratifie the Popish Party by giving Credence to such idle Surmizes which they can have so little ground to believe The Jesuits have committed a great piece of Villany in this Nation they have attempted the Life of the King and have been Plotting to subvert the Established Religion of the Kingdom and now they would throw it upon the Presbyterians Which is a Fourbery so plain that common Sense and Policy may easily discover the full intent and meaning of it And therefore it is fairly to be hop'd that neither Presbyterians nor any other Protestant Dissenters will be so Unchristian-like Disloyal as to receive any Exasperation from these Calumnies but rather unite against the Common Enemy from whom they can expect no more Mercy than the severest Champion of Episcopacy can hope for But you will say the Presbyterians are not accus'd of any Design to bring in Popery but miraculously discover'd as the Authors of a Plot to set up the Classes of their own Ecclesiastical Government Well! if it were so they were the arrantest Bunglers of Plotters that ever plotted Mischief in this World For I do not find their Plot to be above a years standing And it was a Plot that was driven on out of pure Kindness to the Papists For the Presbyterians understanding that the Papists their Incarnate Enemies were under a Premunire as being accused of Treason and Conspiracy against the KING and Kingdom They therefore would needs enter into a Plot which they would so order as to be discover'd a Twelve-month after to ease the Papists of the Load they groan'd under So that as considering the time it fell out most confoundedly unluckily that the Presbyteriaus should conceal this Plot from the Papists till so many good honest pious and loyal Priests of Baal and Sons of Belial were hang'd which would never have been done had there been the least Inkling given of the Meal-Tub in season But when the Names of the Persons came to be seen that were to be Actors in this Presbyterian Tragedy then to the Laughter of the whole World there never appear'd such a Dow-bak'd Plot out of a Meal-Tub since the Creation to bring so many Great Men plotting against their own prosperity and enjoyments so many wise and politic States-men by whom the Nation has been so long steer'd to be Plotters and Conspirers against their own Preservation These are Plots of such a strange Nature that if they could be thought reall they would occasion the unhinging of the whole Frame of Order and Government while it were impossible for Honour Probity and Reputation to remain upon the Earth Obedience and Allegiance to Government are grounded either upon Religion or Moral Vertue or if these two fail there is a necessity which obliges the ordinary fore-sight of Prudence Against these Ambition or Revenge are the only Combatants but neither Ambition nor Revenge can bear so great a sway in persons that understand the Intrigues of Policy or the more mysterious management of Prudence as to delude them into Plots and Conspiracies where there is no prospect of a secure Change The Presbyterians are a sort of people wary and deliberate Neither are their Tenents which had their rise and beginnings from men whom the Papists themselves confess to have been men of great Learning Eloquence and Exemplary Lives of that Crimson Constitution as to prompt them to lay the Foundations of their Hierarchy in Blood and Massacre or so deeply to wound the Reputation of the Protestant Religion by the clandestine Treachery and secret Contrivances of Disloyalty For as for that Design of the Huguenots under Francis the Second King of France of which the Prince of Conde and the Admiral Coligni were said to be Chief that was no Design against the Life or Person of the King but against the exorbitant Pride of the Guises Duke and Cardinal who were at the same time P apists and were themselves contriving to take away the Life of the young King and translate the Royal Dignity into their own Family Neither could the Civil Wars of France be said to be the Rebellion of the Hugonets But a War of the Queen Regents and the two Guises own weaving while they all strove to preserve their own Authority And the Queen Regent her self was the first that caus'd the Prince of Conde to take Arms as fearing the Guises would wrest the Government out of her hands by recommending to his Protection the young King Charles the Ninth her Son her Self and the Kingdom Nay they were so far from being Rebels to their King that they joyn'd with the Catholiques for the Recovery of Haure out of the hands of Queen Elizabeth who had been their Friend And though the Admiral and Dandelot were not at the Siege for fear of being taxed by the Queen of Ingratitude yet they sent both their Forces and Friends Some indeed justly deserved to be blamed for the violence of their Conduct in the late Wars but it is a Question of which some make no doubt whether those Violences were not occasion'd by the Papists in Masquerade who well knew how to intermix themselves both in their Counsels and Actions whether they did not stand behind the Scene and prompt those Sons of Jehu Whether they did not pour Oyl upon those Flames For it appears that the Presbyterians if Names of distinction may be us'd among people of the same Religion were the first that relented as is evident by Votes of Addresses and their Treaty at the Isle of Wight not broke off by them but by One that was playing his own Game and meditating the destruction both of his Sovereign and them too Who having made his Exit they then considered what ill Phaetons they had been before and return'd the more skilful Phoebus the Reins of his Chariot again But that you may know that 't is an old Dog-trick of the Papists to play the Devils Incarnate and lay their most wicked Actions upon the Innocent I will repeat this short Story out of one of the choicest French Historians and a Catholique
Graces dispatch with the enclosed from His Majesty by my Secretary Oveart and shall give due account with all possible speed of the same according to His Majesties and your Graces Commands praying heartily that my endeavours which shall be most faithful may also prove effectual to His Majesties and your Grace's content with which I do most humbly take leave being always Hague Sept. 24. 1640 S. Angelo Your Graces most dutiful and humblest Servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement Received Sept. 30. 1640. Sir William Boswell his acknowledgement that he hath received the King's Directions in my Letters Sir William Boswell ' s third Letter to the Arch-Bishop sent with the larger Discovery of the PLOT May it please your Grace UPon receipt of His Majesties Commands with your Grace's Letters of 9 and 18 Sept. last I dealt with the party to make good his Offers formerly put in mine hand and transmitted to your Grace This he hopes to have done by the inclosed so far as will be needful for His Majesties satisfaction yet if any more particular explanation or discovery shall be required by His Majesty or your Grace He hath promised to add thereunto whatsoever he can remember and knows of truth And for better assurance and verification of his integrity he professeth himself ready if required to make Oath of what he hath already declared or shall hereafter declare in the business His name he conjures me still to conceale though he thinks His Majesty and your Grace by the Character he gives of himself will easily imagin who he is having been known so generally through Court and City as he was for three or four years in the quality and imployment he acknowlegeth by his Declaration inclosed himself to have held Hereupon he doth also redouble his most humble and earnest Suit unto His Majesty and your Grace to be most secret and circumspect in the business that he may not be suspected to have discovered or had a hand in the same I shall here humbly beseech your Grace to let me know what I may further do for His Majesties service or for your Graces particular behoof that I may accordingly endeavour to approve my self As I am Hague Octob. 15. 1640. Your Grace's most dutiful and obliged Servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsment Received Octob. 14. 1640. Sir William Boswell in prosecution of the great business If any thing come to him in Cyphers to send it to him The large particular Discovery of the PLOT and Treason against the King Kingdom and Protestant Religion and to raise the Scotish Wars written in Latin Most Illusirious and Revcrend Lord WE have willingly and cordially perceived that our offers have been acceptable both to his Royal Majesty and likewise to your Grace This is the only Index to us That the blessing of God is present with you whereby a spur is given that we should so much the more chearfully and freely utter and detest those things whereby the hazard of both your lives the subversion of the Realm and State both of England and Scotland the tumbling down of his Excellent Majesty from his Throne is intended Now lest the discourse should be enlarged with superfluous circumstances we will only premise some things which are meerly necessary to the business You may first of all know that this good man by whom the ensuing things are detected was born and bred in the Popish Religion who spent many years in Ecclesiastical dignities At length being found fit for the expedition of the present Design by the counsel and mandate of the Lord Cardinal Barbarini he was adjoyned to the assistance of Master Cuneus Con by whom he was found so diligent and sedulous in his Office that hope of great promotion was given to him Yet he led by the instinct of the good Spirit hath howsoever it be contemned sweet promises and having known the vanities of the Pontifician Religion of which he had sometime been a most severe defender having likewise noted the malice of those who fight under the Popish banner felt his Conscience to be burdened which burden that he might ease himself of he converted his mind to the Orthodox Religion Soon after that he might exonerate his Conscience he thought fit that a desperate Treason machinated against so many souls was to be revealed and that he should receive ease if he vented such things in the bosom of a friend which done he was seriously admonished by the said friend that he should shew an example of his conversion and charity and free so many innocent souls from imminent danger To whose monitions he willingly consented and delivered the following things to be put in writing out of which the Articles not long since tendered to your Grace may be clearly explicated and demonstrated 1. First of all that the hinge of the business may be rightly discerned it is to be known that all those factions with which Christendom is at this day shaken do arise from the Jesuitical Off-spring of Cham of which four Orders abound throughout the World Of the first Order are Ecclesiasticks whose Office it is to take care of things promoting Religion Of the second Order are Politicians whose Office it is by any means to shake trouble and reform the state of Kingdoms and Republicks Of the third Order are Seculars whose property it is to obtrude themselves into Offices with Kings and Princes to insinuate and immix themselves in Court businesses bargains and sales and to be busied in civil affairs Of the fourth Order are Intelligencers or Spies men of inseriour condition who submit themselves to the services of great men Princes Barons Noble-men Citizens to deceive or corrupt the minds of their masters 2. A Society of so many Orders the Kingdom of England nourisheth for scarce all Spain France and Italy can yield so great a multitude of Jesuits as London alone where are found more than 50 Scotish Jesuits There the said society hath elected to it self a Seat of iniquity and hath conspired against the King and the most faithful to the King especially the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and likewise against both Kingdoms 3. For it is more certain than certainty it self that the forenamed society hath determined to effect an universal reformation of the Kingdom of England and Scotland Therefore the determination of the end necessarily infers a determination of means to the end 4. Therefore to promote the undertaken Villany the said society dubbed it self with the Title of The Congregation of propagating the Faith which acknowlegeth the Pope of Rome the Head of the College and Cardinal Barbarini his substitute and Executor 5. The chief Patron of the society at London is the Popes Legat who takes care of the business into whose bosom these dregs of Traytors weekly deposite all their Intelligences Now the residence of this Legation was obtained at London in the name of the Roman Pontiff by whose mediation it might be lawful for Cardinal Barbarini to work
three years since He had a Palace adorned with lascivious Pictures which counterfeited Profaneness in the House but with them was palliated a Monastery wherein forty Nuns were maintained hid in so great a Palace It is situated in Queen-street which the Statue of a Golden Queen adorns The secular Jesuits have bought all this Street and have design'd it into a Quadrangle where a Jesuitical College is built in private with this hope that it might be openly finished as soon as the universal reformation was begun The Pope's Legat useth a threefold Character or Cipher one of which he communicates with all Nuncioes another with Cardinal Barbarini only with a third he covers some greater secrets to be communicated Whatsoever things he either receiveth from the Society or other Spies those he packs up together in one bundle dedicated under this Inscription To Monsieur Stravio Arch-deacon of Cambray From whom at last they are promoted to Rome These things being thus ordered if every thing be laid to the Ballance it will satisfie in special all the Articles propounded WHEREIN 1. THe Conspiracy against the King and Lord Arch-Bishop is detected and the means whereby ruin is threatned to both demonstrated 2. The eminent dangers of both Kingdoms are rehearsed 3. The rise and progress of that Scottish Fire is related 4. Means whereby these Scottish Troubles may be appeased are suggested For after the Scots shall know by whom and to what end their minds are incensed they will speedily look to themselves neither will they suffer the Forces of both parts to be subdued lest a middle party interpose which seeks the ruin of both 5. With what Sword the King's Throat is affaulted even when these stirs shall be ended Cuneus his Confession and a visible Demonstration sheweth 6. The place of the Affembly in the House of Captain Read is nominated 7. The day of the eight days dispatch by Read and the Legat is prescribed 8. How the names of the Conspirators may be known 9. Where this whole Congregation may be circumvented 10. Some of the Principal unfaithful ones of the King's Party are notified by name many of whose names occur not yet their habitations are known their names may be easily extorted from Read If these things be warily proceeded in the strength of the whole business will be brought to light so the arrow being foreseen the danger shall be avoided which that it may prosperously succeed the Omnipotent Creator grant The Arch-Bishops Indorsement with his own hand Received October 14. 1640. The Narration of the great Treason concerning which he promised to Sir William Boswell to discover against the King and State Historical Remarks ON THE JESUITS WHoever shall Compare the before-recited PLOT against King Charles the First of Glorious Memory with that against His most Sacred Majesty now Reigning shall find them so like in all the Parts and Circumstances that never were two Brothers more the Design the same the Contrivance the same the Working and Machination all moving upon the same Wheels of KING-killing and State-destraction and in reference to Condition Quality Religion and Motive the Conspirators the very same From whence it follows that there is no such Improbability of the Late discoverd PLOT as the Papists would have us believe An ill Name is half a Conviction Quo semel est imbuta recens natur am expellas furcalicet are the Jesuits Merals Plot Contrivance and Cruelty are so much the Essential Attributes of Jesuitism as if like so many Romulusses and Remusses they had suckt the Milk of Wolves rather than of Christian Mothers that when you hear of Plot 's and Designs against Kings and Princes you may be assur'd what sort of Cyclops were the Forgers of such Conspiracies Neither is this bare Allegation but Matter of Fact there being nothing more frequently taught nor more frequantly practis'd than the rebellious Principles of the Jesuits and their Adherents How abominably the Reigns of several of our Princes here in England has been pester'd with this Generation of Vipers and Blood-suckers the Penal Statutes of the Kingdom and the utter Expulsion of the Popish Priests and Jesuits out of the Nation are convincing Evidences And as to their Behaviour in other Countries take this following Account First then it is a Maxim most true and undoubted That a Vacuum in Nature may be as soon allow'd as that there is any Court of King or Prince where these Jesuits do not swarm and abound if they can but creep in at the least Creviss To come to particulars we will begin with Portugal a Kingdom altogether acknowledging the Papal Jurisdiction In the Year 1578. the Jesuits perswaded Sebastian King of that Kingdom to undertake that Fatal Expedition into Africa to the end that by his ruin they night transfer the Kingdom to the Dominion of the Spaniard The Success answer'd their Expectation for Sebastian being cut off together with his Son and the greatest part of the Portugal Nobility presently Philip King of Spain prepares to invade Portugal with two powerful Armies But well knowing how little Right he had on his side and how much he should be censur'd as well in Italy as in Portugal for such an Action he began to make it a Point of Conscience and referr'd his Scruples to be discuss'd by the Jesuits and Franciscans in the Colledge of Alcana de Henares and of them he desires to know Whether if it were apparent that he had a Right to the Crown of Portugal by the Death of Henry he were not oblig'd in Conscience to submit himself to some Tribunal that should adjudge the Kingdom to him Secondly Whether if the Portugals should refuse to admit him for their King before the difference were decided between the Competitors he might not by force of Arms Invest himself in the Kingdom by his own Authority To which the Jesuits and Franciscans made answer That Philip was bound by no tye of Conscience to subject himself to the Will of another but might act as he saw fitting by his own Authority Which flattering Sentence of those irreligious Cusuists being approved by Philip he presently began the War In the heat of which War the Jesuits were they that would have betray'd the chiefest of the Azores Islands to the Spaniards which so incens'd the People that some would have had them try'd for their lives others would have had them and their Colledge burnt together In France Joane Albret Queen of Navarr was poysoned with a pair of Perfumed Gloves at the procurement of the Jesuits for being the Patroness of those of the Reformed Religion That Rebellious League of the Guizes against Henry the Third of France was carried on and promoted by the Jesuits both at Paris and other places Insomuch that when the League got strength and began to appear the Jesuits making a wrong use of their Power of Confessing and Absolving would Absolve none that professed themselves obedient Subjects to the King This unfortunate Prince was not
A TRUE RELATION OF THE POPISH-PLOT AGAINST King CHARLES I. AND THE Protestant Religion IF there be any professing the Protestant Religion within His Majesties Dominions who are yet so wilfully blinded as not to believe the Reality of the late Conspiracies or that it has not been a long time carrying on to extirpate the Protestant Religion reestablish Popery and inthral the People in all the Three Kingdoms let them but advisedly fix their Eyes and Minds upon the Ensuing Letters and Discoveries and they will easily find Papistical Plots have been no new things in this Nation To omit their attempts upon King Edward Queen Elizabeth and King James these Papists make it evidently out that the same Design and the same Contrivances were on foot in the Reign of oâ—â— late Sovereign Charles the First of Blessed Memory a True Narrative whereof these Sheets contain as they were found in the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's Study in the Tower May 31. 1643. The first who discover'd it was an Actor in it sent hither from Rome by Cardinal Barbarini to assist Con the Pope's Legat in the pursuit of it and privy to all the particulars who being touch'd with remorse of Conscience for being guilty of so detestable a Crime reveal'd the whole Mystery to Sir William Boswell the King's Leiger Embassador at the Hague who gave private notice of the same to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by whom it was declar'd to the King himself Sir WILLIAM BOSWELL's first Letter to the Arch-Bishop touching this Plot. May it please your Grace THe Offers whereof your Grace will find a Copy here enclos'd toward a farther and more particular Discovery were first made to me at the second hand and by word of mouth by a Friend of good Quality and Worth in this place But soon after as soon as they could be put into order were avowd by the principal party and deliver'd me in writing by both together upon promise and Oath which I was required to give and gave accordingly not to reveal the same to any other Man living but your Grace and by your Grace's hand to his Majestie In like manner they have tied themselves not to declare these things to any other but my self untill they should know how His Majestie and your Grace would dispose thereof The Principal giving me withall to know that he puts himself and this Secret into your Grace's power as well because it concerns your Grace so nearly after his Majestie as that he knows your wisdom to guide the same aright and is also assur'd of your Grace's fidelity to His Majesties Person to our State and to our Church First your Grace is earnestly pray'd to signifie His Majesties pleasure with all speed together with your Grace's disposition herein and purpose to carry all with silence from all but his Majestie until due time Secondly when your Grace shall think sit to shew these things to His Majestie to do it immediately and not trusting Letters nor permitting any other Person to be by or within hearing and to intreat and counsel His Majestie as in a case of Conscience to keep the same wholly and solely in his own bosom from the knowledge of all other Creatures living but your Grace until the business shall be clear'd out Thirdly not to enquire or demand the Names of the Parties from whom these Overtures do come or any farther discoveries or advertisements in pursuit of them which shall come hereafter until satisfaction shall be given to every part of them Nor to 〈◊〉 to any Person but His Majestie that any thing of this Nature 〈◊〉 come from me For as I may believe these Overtures are veryfiable in the way they will be laid and that the parties will not shrink so I may account that if never so little glimpse or shadow of these Informations shall appear by His Majesties or your Grace's words or carriage unto others the means whereby the business may be brought best unto Tryal will be utterly disappointed And the parties who have in Conscience toward God Devotion to His Majestie Affection toward your Grace and Compassion to our Country disclos'd these things will run a present and extream hazard of their Persons and Lives So easily it will be conjectur'd upon the least occasion given either by His Majestie or your Grace who is the Discoverer These are the Points and Offers which they have prest me to represent more especially to his Grace For my own particular having already most humbly crav'd Pardon of any Errour or Omissions that have befallen me in the managing this business I do beseech your Grace to let me know First whether and in what order I shall proceed with the Parties Secondly what points of these Offers I shall first put them upon to enlarge and clear Thirdly what other Points and Queries I shall propose to them and in what manner Fourthly how far further I shall suffers my self to hear and know these things Fifthly whether I shall not rather take the parties answers and discoveries sealed up by themselves and having likewise put my own Seal upon them without questioning or seeing what they contain so to transmit them to your Grace or His Majestie Sixthly whether I may not insinuate upon some fair occasion that there will be a due regard had of them and their service by His Majestie and your Grace when all particulars undertaken in these general Offers and necessary for perfecting the discovery and work intended shall effectually be delivered to His Majestie and your Grace Upon these Heads and such other as His Majesty and your Grace shall think proper in the Business I must with all humility beseech your Grace to furnish me with Instructions and Warrant for my proceedings under His Majesties Hand with your Grace's attestation as by His Majesties Goodness and Royal disposition is usual in like Cases May it please your Grace to entertain a Cipher with me upon this Occasion I have sent the Counterpart of one here inclos'd If these Overtures happily sort with His Majesties and your Grace's mind and shall accordingly prove effectual in their Operation I shall think my self a most happy man to have any Oblation in so pious a Work for my most Gracious Soveraign and Master More particularly in that your Grace under His Majesty shall be Opisex rerum mundi melioris Origo Which I shall incessantly beg in my Prayers at his Hands who is the giver of all good things and will never forsake or fail them who do not first fail and fall from him the God of Mercy and Peace with which I remain ever more Your Grace's most Dutiful and obliged Servant WILLIAM BOSWELL I have not dar'd to trust this business without a Cipher but by a sure band for which reason I have sent the Bearer my Secretary Express but he knows nothing of the Contents thereof Hague in Holland Sept. 9. 1640. Stylo loci Superscrib'd For your Grace Endors'd by the Arch-Bishop with his own hand
so much the more easily and safely upon the King and Kingdom For none else could so freely circumvent the King as he who should be palliated with the Popes Authority 6. Master Cuneus did at that time enjoy the Office of the Popes Legat an Universal Instrument of the conjured society and a serious Promoter of the business whose secrets as likewise those of all other Intelligencers the present good man the Communicator of all these things did revive and expedite whither the business required Cuneus set upon the chief men of the Kingdom and left nothing unattempted by what means he might corrupt them all and incline them to the pontifician party he inticed many with various incitements yea he sought to delude the King himself with gifts of Pictures Antiquities Idols and of other vanities brought from Rome which yet would prevail nothing with the King Having entred familiarity with the King he is often requested at Hampton Court likewise at London to undertake the Cause of the Palatine and that he would interpose his Authority and by his intercession perswade the Legat of Colen that the Palatine in the next Diet to treat of peace might be inserted into the Conditions which verily he promised but performed the contrary He writ indeed that he had been so desired by the King concerning such things yet he advised that they should not be consented to left peradventure it might be said by the Spaniard that the Pope of Rome had patronized an heretical Prince In the mean time Cuneus smelling from the Archbishop most trusty to the King that the Kings mind was wholly pendulous or doubtâ—ul Resolved That he would move every stone and apply his forces that he might gain him to his party Certainly considing that he had a means prepared For he had a command to offer a Cardinals Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him also with higher promises that he might corrupt his sincere mind Yet a sitting occasion was never given whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Archbishop Free access was to be gained by the Earl and Countess of A likewise Secretary W The intercession of all which being neglected he did flie the company or familiarity of Cuneus worse than the plague He was likewise perswaded by others of no mean rank well known to him neither yet was he moved 7. Another also was assayed who hindred access to the detestable wickedness Secretary Cook he was a most bitter hater of the Jesuits whom he intercepted from access to the King he entertained many of them according to their deserts he diligently enquired into their factions by which means every incitement breathing a magnetical attractive power to the Popish party was ineffectual with him for nothing was so dear unto him that might incline him to wickedness Hereupon being made odious to the Patrons of the Conspiracy he was endangered to be discharged from his Office it was laboured for three years space and at last obtained Yet notwithstanding there remained on the Kings part a knot hard to be untied for the Lord Arch-Bishop by his constancy interposed himself as a most hard rock When Cuneus had understood from the Lord Arch-Bishops part that he had laboured in vain his malice and the whole Societies waxed boyling hot soon after ambushes began to be prepared wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be taken Likewise a sentence is passed against the King for whose sake all this business is disposed because nothing is hoped from him which might seem to promote the Popish Religion but especially when he had opened his mind that he was of this opinion That every one might be saved in his own Religion so as he be an honest and pious man 8. To perpetrate the Treason undertaken the criminal Execution at Westminster caused by some Writings of Puritans gave occasion of the first Fire which thing was so much exasperated and exaggerated by the Papists to the Puritans that if it remained unrevenged it would be thought a blemish to their Religion The Flames of which Fire the Scotch Book of Prayers increases occasioned by it's alterations 9. In this heat a certain Scotish Earl called Maxsield if I mistake not was expedited to the Scots by the Popish Party with whom two other Scotish Earls Papists held correspondency He was to stir up the People to Commotion and rub over the injury afresh that he might enslame their minds precipitate them to Arms by which the hurtful disturber of the Scotish Liberty might be slain 10. By this one labour snares are prepared for the King for this purpose the present business was so ordered That very many of the English should adhere to the Scots That the King should remain inseriour in Arms who thereupon should be compelled to crave assistance from the Papists which yet he should not obtain unless he would descend unto conditions by which he should permit Universal liberty of the exercise of the Popish Religion for so the affairs of the Papists would succeed according to their desire To which consent if he should shew himself more difficult there should be a present remedy at hand The King is to be dispatched For an Indian Nut stuffed with most sharp Poyson is kept in the Society which Cuneus at that time shewed often to me in a boasting manner wherein a Poyson was prepared for the King after the Example of his Father 11. In this Scottish Commotion the Marquess of Hamilton often dispatched to the Scots in the Name of the King to interpose the Royal Authority whereby the heat of minds might be mittigated returned notwithstanding as often without fruit and without ending the Business His Chaplain at that time repaired to us who communicated some things secretly with Cuneus Being demanded of me in jest Whether also the Jews agreed with the Samaritans Cuneus thereunto answered Would to God all Ministers were such as he What you will may be hence conjectured 12. Things standing thus there arrived at London from Cardinal Richelieu Mr. Thomas Chamberlaine his Chaplain and Almoner a Scot by Nation who was to assist the College of the confederate Society and seriously to set forward the Business to leave nothing unattempted whereby the first heat might be exasperated For which service he was promised the reward of a Bishoprick He cohabited with the Society four Months space neither was it lawful for him first to depart until things succeeding according to his wish he might be able to return back again with good news 13. Sir Toby Matthew a Jesuited Priest of the Order of Politicians a most vigilant man of the chief heads to whom a Bed was never so dear that he would rest his head thereon refreshing his Body with sleep in a Chair for an hour or two neither day nor night spared his Machinations a Man principally noxious and himself the Plague of the King and Kingdom of England a most impudent